The Illusion of New and Exciting

New and exciting is, well… new and exciting. We all love a new car, a new house a new stream of income and a new start. Here at the start of a new year it’s easy to think about new and exciting. The problem is, many of us are not doing anything new and exciting. We’re driving the same car, going to the same school, attending the same church, working at the same job, etc… As all the fireworks fade away and the new year settles in you may start feeling as if you missed out on something because everything is pretty much ‘the same as last year’. The question is, ‘do you have to be doing anything new or exciting for something new and exciting to happen?’ The answer is, no. The most unlikely place for something new and exciting to happen is in the same old place you’ve been. But guess what, that’s often where miracles take place. Not ‘over there’ but right ‘here’.

The thing about new and exciting is that it is often only exciting while it’s new and it’s only new for a very short while. The new model year for that car you just bought is already in production as you drive off the lot. That new job you just landed may be exciting for now simply because you haven’t been there long enough to learn about all the difficult people and accounts you’ll be dealing with. Now, I’m not ‘anti-new’ at all. My point is that we often discount where we are because it doesn’t seem as exciting or as fulfilling as where ‘everybody else’ is. It can be easy to dismiss the fruit that is being produced in the very ground you’re planted in. Often times, the closer you are to something the harder it is to really see it. A beautiful mountain is just a big rock in your way when you’re up close to it. Where you are may be the ideal location for incredible things to spring forth. Maybe you just can’t see it right now? (Click Here To Read My Post ‘Same Storm, Different View’)

Bamboo is the world’s fastest growing plant. Certain species have recorded growth of up to 4 feet in 24 hours! The thing is, that kind of growth doesn’t happen immediately. Bamboo, as I understand it, is planted and grows for about 60 days, then levels off for the year. The next Spring, it produces new shoots right beside the initial ones that are a bit thicker and grow a bit taller. They’re all part of the same ‘plant’. This happens each Spring for about 5 years. They grow for about 60 days, they level off and hold their ground and then produce new shoots that grow thicker and taller than the previous ones. It is those thicker, larger shoots that have been recorded as growing so fast (the ones that came after the initial shoots have been in place for several years). Those new and exciting shoots that are in the Guinness Book of World Records for growing so fast are only produced by the initial bamboo shoots being firmly planted and faithfully standing their ground year after year. ‘New and exciting’ showed up in the same patch of dirt as the small and unimpressive original plants were planted. Maybe that’s what’s happening in you? (Click Here To Read My Post “I Need More Gray Hair In My Life’)

‘Tomorrow’ never gets here. There’s always only today. ‘Over there’ isn’t a real place because once you get ‘there’ you’re now ‘here’ and it’s no longer ‘over there’. (did you follow that?) God is always most interested in meeting you today, right here, where you actually are. In the course of time He may move you to other places or impact you in other ways but He is always most interested in you, right now, right here. Can you be available to Him and fully engage today where you are? Maybe you’re dream job is actually the one you have right now? You just haven’t realized it’s potential yet? Maybe you’re dream body is walking around inside the one you have right now? You just haven’t nurtured and shaped it enough yet to see it? Maybe you are married to the spouse of your dreams? You just haven’t treated them as such and haven’t allowed them to become that yet because of past hurts? Of course, I could be wrong about any of these things but my point is, as long as we haven’t fully engaged where we are then we can’t say for sure that it isn’t so great. (Click Here to Read My Post ‘In Your Heart and Out Of Reach’)

Each of the Apostles became the famous Apostles we know by simply showing up to their ‘regular old’ jobs that morning. The only difference was that on that certain day, Jesus showed up right where they were and invited them to something new and exciting. Stay planted, be rooted, endure the struggle and keep your eyes open. God can show up right were you are… and there is nothing more unlikely, more miraculous or new and exciting than that.

‘The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house of the Lord,they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age,they will stay fresh and green… ‘ – Psalm 92:12-14 NIV

‘As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.’ – Matthew 9:9 NIV

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”– Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV